Reverting to Android 7 from Android 10 of the Fairphone Open OS

So now one day using my old FP2 (clean A10, see above) instead of my FP4 (A11) I am really excited. If the FP2 would have run so smooth before, I probably had not switched to the FP4 :grinning:

My setup and settings I described above. I have the new camera modules installed. Besides stock apps I tested Fritz!App TV, CPU-Z and GPSTest. I didn’t test Whatsapp, Signal and no game apps. Under System → Maintenance → Extended Hardware Functions: all enabled

My experience:

  1. GUI runs smooth and reliable independent of typing or wiping speed. No hangs or freezes.
  2. battery drain is hard to estimate for me due to bad health of my battery. Nearly zero when the phone is not used
  3. the stock photo app couldn’t connect to the camera one time, but it could not be reproduced until now
  4. GPS fixes fast using three Satellite-Systems USA, Russia and China. Galileo is not supported by the FP2 at all as I know. Google Maps positions are exact, compass calibrates fast
  5. phone calls are o.k. in voice quality and stability. The speaker volume in handsfree mode is low as always before (in media mode speaker volume is much higher). WLan-Call and VoLTE are not available (missing driver support by Qualcomm?)
  6. sending and receiving SMS o.k.
  7. browsing with Chrome o.k. including video with Picture in Picture (which crashed in A9), some internet games.
  8. Bluetooth Box and Headset (cable) connect easily and sound o.k. (BLE activated but not tested)
  9. Youtube and Fritz!App TV Videos run smooth and reliable

Here is what I found (still) making problems:

  1. WLan randomly loses connection but reconnects immediately (happens less than once an hour, I notice that from beginning on (A5) together with my Fritz!Box Router; WPA3 is not supported)
  2. Nightlight definitively doesn’t work! When on, display freezes often especially at video playback. Nothing else helps but Power + Volume down to restart the phone. Maybe it has to do with my display module which is of very first version. I recognize that since introducing nightlight in Android.

Conclusion: with Android 10 Fairphone made the FP2 usable for a longer period of time. Congrats!
Since there were 5 major Android Versions published for the FP2 over the years, I suppose that some problems of my previous versions were based on the consecutive updates OTA via updater. Although I performed more than one factory reset in the past, I think there was something like accumulating waste which led to unreliable functionality. Now the clean install (factory reset A9, manually flashing A10, factory reset again) is something like a rejuvenation for the FP2.

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